1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording medium, a method for manufacturing the same, a printed material, a method for manufacturing the same, ornamental glass, and a roll.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet methods in which an ink composition is jetted in the form of droplets from an ink jet port use a small device, are inexpensive, and can form an image on a recording medium in a non-contact manner. Therefore, the ink jet methods are used in many printers. Among the ink jet methods, a piezoelectric ink jet method, in which an ink is jetted by exploiting the deformation of a piezoelectric element, and a thermal ink jet method, in which an ink composition is jetted in the form of droplets by exploiting the boiling phenomenon of the ink composition caused by thermal energy, feature high resolution and excellent high-speed printing properties.
In recent years, not only photo printers or document printers for home use or office use, but also commercial printers or industrial printers using ink jet printers have been developed. Particularly, there is a rapidly increasing demand for a wide format ink jet printer which is suitable for printing a large size advertisement, such as ornamental glass obtained by bonding a printed material, which is formed by printing letters or patterns on an ink jet recording sheet for ornamenting windows, to the glass of a show window or an automatic door, and performs UV irradiation immediately after ink droplets are jetted. The printed material used in the ornamental glass or the ink jet recording sheet for ornamenting windows for forming the printed material is required to have an ink receiving layer that has both of the ink adhesiveness and the scratch resistance.
As the ink used in the wide format ink jet printer, an actinic ray-curable type ink cured by actinic rays (radiation) such as ultraviolet rays is generally used. The ink is classified into a non-aqueous ink containing an organic solvent and a solventless ink not containing an organic solvent. Because the organic solvent dissolves a resin forming the ink receiving layer on the recording sheet, the ink easily dyes the ink receiving layer, and the ink adhesiveness is easily obtained.
However, because of the necessity for a step of volatilizing the organic solvent and the problem of the working environment in which the organic solvent (VOC) is handled, the use of a solventless actinic ray-curable type ink is desired. Because the solventless actinic ray-curable type ink does not dissolve the ink receiving layer, the ink does not easily dye the ink receiving layer. Furthermore, the adhesiveness between the actinic ray-curable type ink and the recording medium needs to be further improved.
For example, JP2001-232738A suggests a method for improving the adhesiveness with respect to a UV-curable type ink by using a recording layer composed of at least one kind of resin selected from polyester, polyurethane, acryl, and polyester urethane resins. JP2002-11942A suggests a method for improving printing properties with respect to a wide format ink jet printer and a pigment (UV) ink by forming an ink receiving layer composed of aqueous polyurethane, a porous pigment, and magnesium chloride. JP2010-47015A suggests a method for improving high water resistance with respect to an organic solvent-containing non-aqueous ink by forming an ink receiving layer formed of a urethane/acryl blend or a blend of two or more kinds of urethane.
JP2009-545663A describes the use of a curable composition, which contains one or more kinds of non-charged curable monomer, one or more kinds of anionic curable monomer, one or more kinds of cationic compound having a molecular weight of equal to or greater than 150 Dalton (Da), and an aqueous solvent, for manufacturing a porous film as an ink receiving layer. JP2000-211249A describes a composition for an actinic energy ray-curable ink jet ink receiving layer containing alkylene oxide-modified polyfunctional (meth)acrylate and a compound containing two or more maleimide structures in a molecule.